Thursday, July 17, 2008

Le Fate Ignoranti

The above was the movie we watched last night for our film class. They put up a 20 foot sheet on the cloister walls and invite the townspeople to come along with the 20 people in our class. About 10 showed up. The film translates to 'The Ignorant Fairies; though the American name is My Secret Life. Since it explores some aspects of gay life, one assumes the fairies in question are the gay men. I asked one of the Italians if 'fairy' was a derogatory name for a gay man in Italy and he looked very confused so I guess it isn't. Our class is called 'Exploring the Margins of Italian Cinema' so most of the movies are quite edgy and have unclear endings and meanings leading to lots of discussions. We also have lots of readings and presentations making this course way too much work for me. I just want to watch the movies.Sleep is hard to come by. The movie lasted past 11 and then we needed to talk about it. The bells are very close to my window and although I sleep through most of them-they ring 4 times an hour up to 15 times at a time (12:45) and occasionally I wake startled. I did drag myself out of bed to run this morning at 6. My window faces southeast and no curtains or screens for us. It is quite cool in the morning and there is never any traffic. Still the climb out of town is very hard. I walk the steepest sections when my heart starts pounding out of my chest. For a change today, I ran a little towards the 'big' town down the mountain, Castelvecchio, which we can take a shuttle to almost everyday because they have real stores. It has about 1200 people. They are not taking us today as we are supposed to go to a lecture by the carbinieri-a kind of police force though the local police force is the forestalis I guess because we are in a National Park. When we aren't using it, the convent is a training school for the forestalis, which I think are forest rangers. Anyway, I really rather do anything else but go to a lecture.It is probably cooler here than in Michigan. During the day, it might be 80 to 85 but it is dry. It gets down to 50 at night.The food is very good yet simple. Lots of well- seasoned vegetables and pastas. Not much meat.A wife of one of the students--missed her husband so bad she arranged to come to Italy at the last moment. She should get here this afternoon if Mauro can find the director with the car to go pick her up 10 miles away where the train is. Oh I heard that she is here. Can't believe they made arrangements so quickly. I guess they need some room changes. The girls are on the 3rd floor and the guys on the 2nd. The married couples also are on the second floor. We have 2 bathrooms, which have very slippery white ceramic tiles, that get wet very fast as the showers aren't equipped to drain quickly. I am very afraid of falling even with my rubber clogs.Our first Italian test is tomorrow.

About Me

I'm a mother of 3 and grandma of 3 who has battled triple negative breast cancer. For many years I was a medicinal chemist. After my 'retirement', I enrolled in an Italian immersion program living in a monastery for 5 weeks in Gagliano, Aterno, a hill town of 310 in Abruzzo, Italy. Included here is my experience there last summer. Also, at the end of the blog I have included two old blogs: one from my France and Spain trip in 2004 and another two about our adventures in England in 2007.
I returned to find a mass on a routine mammogram. The following is an account on how I am dealing with this frightening news and its treatment. Aside from updating my friends, I encourage newly diagnosed TNBC warriors to follow my story as you may find yourself retracing my steps.